Mark Copper wrote:
Economics aside, I am still amazed after all these years at the power free software has provided to the ordinary person. No university or corporation needed; just read and ask questions. Cool.
And in what way does a GOOD closed-source software vendor break that?I've worked with plenty of closed-source applications and OS's over the years who's creators encouraged reading their excellent documentation and asking questions, and answered them. MS isn't one of them, but they are out there.
It's not just an "open-source" phenomenon. It's a Customer Service and QUALITY phenomenon.
Start using WindRiver, Microware, or Green Hills software and give them a call with a real programming problem, and see how they respond, for example.
Even the Solaris team at Sun Microsystems, HP-UX team within HP, and the AIX team at IBM are all more responsive than MS about things.
Claiming this "transparency" or "power" for the end-user wasn't there before open-source is disingenuous. Plenty of GREAT closed-source OS and application vendors out here still. The hype/religious experience of open-source notwithstanding...
Nate